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April 20: Unusual branch
Apr. 21st, 2011 02:46 pmAfter the deadly storms last Thursday, we had another round of destructive (but not deadly) storms on Tuesday evening, plus pretty much an entire day of ordinary hail/lightning thunderstorms on Wednesday. During one of my wet forays outside, I saw something interesting on one of the young trees next to my apartment building.
It looked like a long, slender, leafy lower branch had partially broken next to the tree's trunk, and the branch was now leaning downwards all the way to the ground. That made sense until I realized that the tree was a Southern pine, and those a) tend not to have lower branches and b) they aren't leafy! (More like needley.) What had actually happened was that a large, vigorous poison ivy vine was growing most of the way up the tree. Poison ivy vines put out tiny little root-like feelers that help it stick to the tree's bark. In the storm, something had caused this vine to be stripped away from the pine trunk, starting at the top of the vine and continuing to about halfway down, where the now-loose portion of the vine plunged tip-first to the ground, like a ladder falling over. I imagine it was probably caught by a larger, falling hickory or pine branch, though I didn't see that branch on the ground. On the other hand, I didn't want to wade into that huge bush of poison ivy leaves to investigate.
I hope everyone around knows what it is and that they should avoid it!
It looked like a long, slender, leafy lower branch had partially broken next to the tree's trunk, and the branch was now leaning downwards all the way to the ground. That made sense until I realized that the tree was a Southern pine, and those a) tend not to have lower branches and b) they aren't leafy! (More like needley.) What had actually happened was that a large, vigorous poison ivy vine was growing most of the way up the tree. Poison ivy vines put out tiny little root-like feelers that help it stick to the tree's bark. In the storm, something had caused this vine to be stripped away from the pine trunk, starting at the top of the vine and continuing to about halfway down, where the now-loose portion of the vine plunged tip-first to the ground, like a ladder falling over. I imagine it was probably caught by a larger, falling hickory or pine branch, though I didn't see that branch on the ground. On the other hand, I didn't want to wade into that huge bush of poison ivy leaves to investigate.
I hope everyone around knows what it is and that they should avoid it!
